A US journalist was ordered this morning to leave Zimbabwe within 24 hours after he was found not guilty of publishing a false story under President Robert Mugabe's new media laws.
"The Department of Immigration has come and said he must leave the country within 24 hours. They gave us no reasons," said Ms Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer for journalist Mr Andrew Meldrum.
Mr Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent of Britain's Guardiannewspaper, was the first of a dozen journalists facing charges of publishing falsehoods to go on trial.
Mr Meldrum was ordered to leave the country shortly after Judge Godfrey Macheyo delivered his ruling in a Harare court.
"It is the court's view that the accused is found not guilty and is therefore acquitted," Judge Macheyo said.
Mr Meldrum - a 50-year-old native of Hudson, Ohio - smiled broadly after the ruling. Some of his supporters in the Harare courtroom cheered.
Mr Meldrum was accused of reproducing a story first published in Zimbabwe's privately-owned Daily Newsthat Mugabe's militant supporters had beheaded a woman earlier this year.
The charge carried a heavy fine and up to two years in jail. The newspaper later said the story was false and apologised to Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.